Kelly debuts with an atmospheric series launch featuring C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and other literary luminaries as gumshoes. In 1936 Oxford, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sets out to solve the recent murder of his friend, Lord Roger Pennington, who was killed on the night of a full moon. Doyle calls on Lewis, Tolkien, and other literary acquaintances for help, and they end up forming the Inklings Detective Agency. During the Inklings’ initial inquiry, another man is murdered under a full moon, ratcheting up the stakes and moving the Inklings to reach out to Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie for their expertise. Together, the crew infiltrates secret societies, researches the origins of various poisons, and digs into a cold case involving the death of a young boy. Though there’s plenty of sleuthing on offer, Kelly delivers more of a well-researched tribute to his real-life characters than a traditional mystery, offering pages upon pages of unbroken dialogue as they sift through papers, nurse pints of beer, and peruse libraries. The momentum suffers as a result, but Kelly makes up for it with vivid characterizations and plenty of literary Easter eggs. The result is a charming if eccentric detective yarn. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

A white Hong Kong police detective is torn between family, faith, and duty as he tackles corruption at the highest levels of government in the satisfying latest from Elegant (A Floating Life). In 2019, disgraced police superintendent Killian Tong is called back from his rural post when a mutilated body is discovered in a Hong Kong landfill. Though Killian believes solving the murder might help get his career back on track, his superiors want the case resolved as quickly and quietly as possible, owing in part to escalating anti-government protests. As Killian investigates, he tries to mend his relationship with his younger sister, Jun, an anti-police activist whose activities have landed her on a government watch list. Eventually, Killian’s inquiry implicates major power players in Hong Kong’s government, and his superiors insist he bury the truth, forcing him to reckon with the episode that got him exiled in the first place. The David-and-Goliath struggle at the heart of the novel is thrilling to witness, and Elegant fortifies it with a complex portrait of Hong Kong’s racial politics and a sobering study of widespread political malfeasance. Striking just the right balance of tension and emotional depth, this bruising thriller delivers the goods. Agent: Peter Rubie, Fine Print. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Ranelli debuts with an intriguing if messy mystery centered on American concierge Sterling Lockwood, who works at Vienna’s notorious Hotel Orient, a well-known location for illicit affairs between wealthy men and sex workers from a nearby brothel. Since all guests use aliases, and no cameras or mobile phones are allowed on the premises, Sterling’s job primarily consists of protecting the identities and private matters of the hotel’s transitory residents. She adores the anonymity the job provides, owing in part to her own shady past. One night, however, two guests are found murdered in their room after a particularly chaotic evening, and police arrive on the premises. Aided by Fernando, a budding actor and faithful bellhop, Sterling investigates the deaths, hoping to solve the case before the police can dig too deeply into her affairs or those of the Orient’s regular clients. The story gets off to a slow start, and Ranelli’s insistent focus on the Orient’s salacious sexcapades can feel gratuitous. Eventually, however, her large cast of colorful characters and convincing evocation of the setting win out. Readers who stick with the program will be rewarded. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this so-so series launch from Cannon (a pseudonym for We Were Illegal author Jessica Goudeau), Leo Holloway returns home to Blue Oak, Tex., after failing to find work as an English professor in New York City. Leo’s godmother, Kay Schneider, offers her a job as an in-house photographer for her real estate firm, and with no other prospects, Leo accepts. Things go awry with her first assignment when she discovers a body wrapped in painter’s drop cloths in one of Kay’s properties. The victim is Chaz Nickolson, owner of a real estate agency that rivals Kay’s. Detective Jake Nguyen, a childhood friend of Leo’s, takes her to the station for questioning. Meanwhile, sheriff Stan Quackenbush, who’s aware of the feud between agencies, deduces that Kay had motive to murder Chaz and arrests her. Jake, however, suspects that someone is framing Kay, and hires Leo as a consultant on the case. The pair interviews a wide array of suspects, but Cannon’s rushed conclusion identifies a culprit that most readers will have guessed much earlier. A subplot about the secret past of Leo’s mother generates more heat than the core investigation. This misses the mark. Agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

The amusing latest in former FBI director Comey’s crime series featuring deputy U.S. attorney Nora Carlton and special agent Benny Dugan (after FDR Drive) finds the duo involved in a foreign espionage case. Edgar Perez, CFO of drone maker Grand Central Avionics, goes out for pasta at his favorite New York City restaurant and dies at the table. Medical examiners reveal he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, a preferred execution method of Russian intelligence. Nora and Benny soon discover, however, that the Perez killing was a mistake, and the probable victim was his boss, George Costas, who was spying for Russia. The pair arrests Costas and takes him to trial, and it’s in the courtroom that the novel comes to life. Comey masterfully orchestrates the legal proceedings as Nora and assistant U.S. attorney Sean Fitzpatrick battle an irascible father-son defense team, and ushers the narrative to a seemingly sound conclusion that he turns on its head with a final twist. Bolstered by Comey’s easy familiarity with subjects ranging from New York City’s Italian restaurants to Russia’s intelligence apparatus, this sleek blend of legal thriller and spy drama goes down smooth. It’s pure pleasure. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Andrew debuts with a winsome mystery that reimagines the timid Harriet Smith from Jane Austen’s Emma as a skilled con artist whose innocuous appearance belies her street smarts and criminal prowess. When the wealthy Mrs. Churchill suspects that someone has attempted to poison her, she reaches out to Harriet, who has gained a reputation around Highbury as a discreet if unsavory fixer. Mrs. Churchill is convinced that her murderous foe is none other than Jane Fairfax, the woman aiming to seduce Mrs. Churchill’s nephew, Frank, and secure access to the Churchill family fortune. Harriet is hired by Mrs. Churchill to break Jane and Felix up, but matters get complicated when the job puts Harriet in danger of being recognized by one of her old marks. Then someone in the Churchill household actually does die by poison, and Harriet tries—with the help of her best friend Robert Martin—to figure out who among the Highbury set has the capacity to kill. Andrew’s version of Harriet Smith proves a witty, appealing antiheroine, and her investigation takes enough worthwhile detours to justify the book’s length. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Novelist Ackerman and former NATO supreme allied commander Stavridis continue to offer chilling global forecasts with their grim yet gripping third geopolitical thriller (after 2054). By 2084, the U.S. and China have fallen from grace on the world stage: civil unrest in the U.S. leading to Florida’s secession and the long-term effects of China’s child-limit policy have created a power vacuum that’s been filled by India and Japan. To combat the Indio-Japanese alliance, the U.S. and China have formed a military alliance called the Consortium, which is fiercely opposed by the Reparationists, a group of nations demanding that the former world superpowers pay for their role in accelerating climate change and making life near the equator unviable. Through a mosaic of perspectives—including those of ex-marine Julia Hunt, now serving as a diplomatic envoy; Reparationist commodore Joko, whose family perished in a 2074 Indonesian superstorm; and crisis manager Jake Shriver, who’s long felt divided between his American and Chinese heritage—Ackerman and Stavridis stage a harrowing global conflict that pits military might against an appetite for justice. As always, the authors spin geopolitical anxiety into exciting, discomfiting genre fiction. The result is equal parts haunting and entertaining. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 02/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

British detective chief inspector Bill Slider probes the death of a colleague in the sturdy latest installment of Harrod-Eagles’s long-running series (after Easeful Death). Well-liked Notting Hill police constable Peter Bentley has been found dead with his head bashed in near a canal on Slider’s turf in the West London suburb of Shepherd’s Bush. Slider enlists his sidekick, detective sergeant Jim Atherton, to help investigate, and they find no shortage of possible explanations. The absence of Bentley’s wallet suggests he may have been the victim of a robbery, but the brutality of the crime points to a more personal motive. Slider and Atherton cast suspicion on Bentley’s adulterous wife, Sandy, while also considering a well-known local criminal and digging into the tragic death of Bentley’s sister a decade earlier for possible clues. Harrod-Eagles’s evocative prose (one of Slider’s superiors displays a smile “like sunlight glinting off a coffin lid”) and skill at capturing policemen’s fraternal humor (London beat cops call members of the detective branch “bananas, because they were yellow, bent and went round in bunches”) elevate the familiar plot. It’s a diverting whodunit. (May)

Reviewed on 02/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Novelist Penny (the Chief Inspector Gamache novels) and journalist Fung (Between Good and Evil) combine their talents in this intelligent espionage thriller centered on a strained mother-daughter relationship. Food blogger Alice Li is dining in Washington, D.C., with her mother, Vivien, a celebrity dissident who fled China after the Tiananmen Square protests, when a powerful cyberattack triggers a worldwide power outage. In the aftermath, Vivien is called to the White House to help determine if the attack came from China. Alice is surprised when she’s asked to tag along, and then, during a high-level meeting, questioned about her friend Liam Palmer, a fellow foodie who’d invited her to D.C. Alice’s confusion turns to grief when she’s informed that Liam was found murdered in Hong King’s Victoria Harbour, and may not be who he said he was. Thrust into the middle of the investigation, Alice joins forces with her mother, whose notoriety has always irked her, to figure out what caused the attack and prevent future damage. Penny’s trademark humor (“She’d taken refuge there to relieve herself. Of her mother”) mingles well with Fung’s political expertise. The result is an eerily plausible nail-biter. (May)

Reviewed on 02/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

A vacationing journalist stumbles across a global conspiracy in Baird’s dizzying debut. Courtney intends to spend a week in Paris catching up with her old study-abroad roommate. On the flight to France from Raleigh, N.C., she meets an alluring seatmate named Salomé. Courtney and Salomé talk for hours, and by the time their plane lands, Courtney has agreed to stay a few nights with Salomé at her widowed mother Nathalie’s house in Châteaubriant. Though Courtney finds Salomé captivating, Nathalie proves odd: dotting her home’s interior are security cameras installed by her snake-oil salesman boyfriend, Marco, who claims to be on the cusp of curing death. Soon, Courtney starts sleepwalking and having nightmares. When Natalie falsely accuses her of stealing, she leaves for Paris. However, the reporter in Courtney can’t resist researching Marco—an instinct that may prove fatal. What begins as a tantalizing slow-burn transforms into a paranoia-fueled speculative thriller when Courtney learns that Marco’s strangeness reaches far beyond the walls of Nathalie’s home. The result is an unpredictable if disjointed reading experience bolstered by Courtney’s increasingly freaked-out first-person narration. This deserves credit for its ambition, even if it doesn’t hang together. Agent: Mackenzie Williams, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)

Reviewed on 02/27/2026 | Details & Permalink